Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAn

Immediate Past President
American Academy of Neurology

Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN, is a practicing neurologist with offices in Tarrytown and Carmel, New York. She is a former chair of the AAN Medical Economics and Management Committee, the Practice Management and Technology Subcommittee, and the Audit Committee. She is editor-in-chief of Brain & Life^®, the AAN's patient and caregiver magazine and website. Avitzur is a medical writer and has written for Neurology Today^®, the official news source of the AAN, reporting on trends and innovations in the practice of neurology since 2001. Her stories have included broad coverage of technology in clinical care; the evolution of the health care regulatory environment; the neurology pipeline; equity, diversity, and inclusion; and, most recently, neurologists on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For 10 years, Avitzur served as a health editor for Consumer Reports, and as its medical director from 2015-2018. She is the recipient of several APEX writing awards and the 2009 AAN Journalism Fellowship award. She attended Johns Hopkins University for her undergraduate studies and during medical school at the Pennsylvania State University, Avitzur received the Merck Award for Academic Excellence. She is a clinical instructor at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, CT, where she completed her neurology residency, and a clinical assistant professor at New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY. She received her Master of Business Administration from the University of Connecticut.